Seals are often used to prevent the passage of a gas from the union of coupled elements in a closed mechanical system containing a gas or liquid. Such seals may be used with couplings such as the flanged union of two pipe ends, the union of a valve stem and valve body, or the union of a compressor impeller shaft and compressor housing. Emission of a gas from a seal generally indicates partial or complete failure of the seal. It is important that the integrity of the seal be restored as quickly as possible. A known method of detecting gaseous emissions requires an individual to manually inspect potential emission sources such as valves, flanges, compressors, and other elements of a closed mechanical system. In this manual method of detection, an individual places a hand-held analyzer which measures gas concentrations in close proximity to the potential emission source. Measured concentrations of any detected gas are applied to formulas to estimate the leak rate of the tested item. There is a problem in attempting to use this manual method of detecting gaseous emissions when attempting to monitor so-called "fugitive" emissions. Fugitive emissions are generally considered to be gases emanating from sources that cannot be easily localized, for example, leaks from various types of industrial equipment including valves, flanges, and compressors. The problem in using the above-described manual method of detecting gaseous emissions is that it is impractical, if not impossible, to adequately monitor numerous potential emission sites and/or remote potential emission sites. For example, in a factory there may be hundreds of thousands of seals in flanges and valves requiring monitoring. Also, potential emissions sites may be at locations extremely remote from any monitoring personnel.